Comments on: Who Designed Your Blog? [POLL RESULTS]

By: john

john — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:43:26 +0000

I like the look of your poll. Did you design this? Is this something I can download from somewhere? How can I add a poll like this to my site?

By: Marc Joseph

Marc Joseph — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:43:26 +0000

I had another thought about these results and I really think that a little further investigation is in order on this subject. The poll is great and I expected the results. However I would be far more interested to see how succesful the blogs are of the people who responded. I have a feeling that the relationship of people that paid for designs vs. those that tweaked free templates will show an inverse relationship when compared to these results.

So they real value of the survey may come from the question of which path will yield the most success. Afterall, this is a blog about making money…

The topic is of importance to me due to the fact that I am considering a profesional design for my own site (youngarchitect.net) and shelling out $1000+ for a new design is a tough decision to make when currently I make $0 from ads and have a small readership.

Thanks

By: Oprea Marian

Oprea Marian — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:19:11 +0000

I don’t believe designers can make good money over this, since the layouts for many blogs are simple (nobody will pay for such simplicity). They could do more money from websites with more complex features.
However, some of them could do more money, because most blogs looks like fashion industry, where only flamboyant’s designers do a good living! :D

By: Chester's Home Remedies

Chester's Home Remedies — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 18:45:17 +0000

I would love to see a comparison of the popularity of each blog type. It would be really interesting to see if the people who paid top dollar for an expensive designer faired better than the default template bloggers.

By: redwall_hp

redwall_hp — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 18:35:05 +0000

Hey, Darren. How about running a poll asking how much people would willingly pay to hire a designer / how much they’d willingly spend on a premium template / etc. This poll’s results were interesting, though I think they could be elaborated upon.

By: Sangesh

Sangesh — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:37:44 +0000

Well, so I fall in the most one’s category. I also downloaded my blog design from Nick-La’s website. And did a bit a little bit of playing with the keyboard and wella all’s well that ends well. It was all done.

;)

Cheers.

By: jd

jd — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:36:51 +0000

Trial and error … trial and error … trial and error …

I’ve tweaked free templates, used free templates, used the default templates.

I’ve considering hiring a designer, but since I’m still in experimentation mode, it would probably be a waste for me, since I’d probably swap it out, while I continue exploring, but maybe I should give it a shot.

What’s important for me is that when I “land” on my blogs, that they “feel” good.

I haven’t found the magic formula yet, so my blogs are still … evolving.

By: CallCenterVet

CallCenterVet — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:15:06 +0000

Wished I participated on that poll but I’m with the people who considerably edited a free blogger template. I’ve gone through several before I finally got satisfied with what I have. I think blogger is more user-friendly and search engine friendly than WP that’s why I went with it. I tried to mess around with WP a few times to see what all the fuss is about but I really don’t get it. I like the versatility of blogger.

By: Video Games

Video Games — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:07:39 +0000

Fascinating. I would have thought that there are more people buying theme’s than there are designing their own.

Or perhaps it’s just the crowd who read this blog that are more technically adept.

By: Téa Brennan

Téa Brennan — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:03:07 +0000

Even though in the blogging world “content is king”, if I come across a default Wordpress template or one that is free, I think it shows that a person isn’t prepared to invest any money into their business. Same goes for blogspot or wordpress.com hosted sites…

Personal blogging, I get… its fun, its fun to tweak your design and add 17 different plugins to your sidebar…and yes, some personal blogs that are particularly captivating have gone on an accidentally made themselves money.

But for a professional blogger? I am actually very surprised that only 7% of respondents on this site, dedicated to serious blogging, have hired a designer for what is essentially a business venture.

Of course, I am a designer so I would say that, but I really do believe that if you do it yourself, you either don’t take your business seriously enough to give it a proper image, or its a hobby. If you are serious and if you want to reap financial rewards or any sort of differentiation as a pro blogger, you should invest the thousand-odd bucks in getting someone to do it properly for you.

If you aren’t a designer, resist the temptation to do it yourself to save a few bucks. Its not just about having CSS and HTML skills and a copy of Photoshop… designers aren’t just web monkeys that hit a magic button and overcharge for the privilege.

Its akin to representing yourself in court because you read the legislation… you are doing yourself a disservice in the long term.

By: MommaDiary.com

MommaDiary.com — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:14:07 +0000

It’s the satisfaction of putting together the bits and codes that make up your site design that fascinates me. I started to learn CSS and HTML 3 months ago and I’m literally hooked.

By: Nisa

Nisa — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 04:25:31 +0000

well, i usually fool around with free templates. I tried to make one template by myself but doesn’t have any luck yet. Hehe =)

By: Nick Schmidt

Nick Schmidt — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:22:41 +0000

Yea . I’m redesigning another template for my website. But it is a pain in the butt.. Even though Wordpress is easier.. Its still a pain to understand all the language from the developer.

I would like to have a web designer to “pimp” up my website..I don’t know if I have the money though..

By: CatherineL

CatherineL — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:21:27 +0000

Interesting poll. I’m guessing that aside from those who designed their own – many who had blogs designed for them, originally set out with templates and tweaked them.

By: neumes

neumes — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:50:03 +0000

Since this was our first venture into Wordpress, tweaking an existing free template from Chris Pearson was the perfect solution for us. We got a great SEO foundation template, backed by an experienced designer who maintains a web site to answer questions. We’ve learned so much in the last month while still being able to customize our look.

I’d recommend this approach to anyone starting out.

By: N2E

N2E — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:10:45 +0000

I designed all of the themes that are featured on all my blogs, myself. Should anyone be interested I'm also selling premium WordPress themes, too. ;) Steve

By: Luke Kohler

Luke Kohler — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:31:48 +0000

I agree with the idea that most of us that are at this site are do-it-yourself-ers by nature, which will lead to these poll results. Having said that, from the day I created my first blog, I started learning how to tweak it myself to get what I wanted. Too many of the free themes look the same, so I think to stand out you have to be able to edit them into a unique look.

I personally don’t make enough money off of my blogs to justify paying for a theme or a designer, but I think that if you learn a little about PHP and CSS (which isn’t that hard), you can end up with a pretty nice looking site.

By: Sarah (Real Life)

Sarah (Real Life) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:58:00 +0000

My new design for 2008 is up, and I considerably tweaked a free template. There are only a few things that still bother me about it, and I wish I had the knowledge to fix it. Let me know if y’all have any feedback.

By: Boring Market

Boring Market — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:43:23 +0000

Especially when a blogger is just starting out the focus is so much on content rather then design. Also, the benefits of not paying anyone else to design your blog is ideal in the short run. I also agree that the branding is very important and tweaking templates are only temporary until one gets on their feet.

By: Dan Cole

Dan Cole — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:32:09 +0000

This isn’t a surprise for me. Since a lot of bloggers quit within the first year, it would seam efficient not to put money into the blog. The people that paid for their theme are likely multi-year bloggers, who believe they can’t create a theme that is compelling enough for there visitors.